At the same time there is more to creativity than just something that
reduces the expenditure of time and effort; it also changes the intent behind
that effort. We know, for instance, that the art of photography grew and
spread in tandem with the rise of impressionist painting. This is because
the spread of photography rendered obsolete any form of art whose purpose
was still to mimic nature. Despite resistance from state-sponsored salons
and galleries, bureaucrats, traditionalists and classicists, the impressionists’ creativity rapidly transformed the very purpose of art. Artists stopped
painting the world as it was and started looking for ways to present it as it
appeared to the artists’—to the human—eye.